Donald Sutherland has officially been cast in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games as President Snow, the ruler of Panem. Lionsgate announced Sutherland’s casting in a press release this morning. Although Snow mostly lurks around the outskirts of the first volume of Games, he is unquestionably the series’ main puppet master (and hey, Sutherland starred in a film called The Puppet Masters!) A quietly malevolent figure who is shrouded in secrecy, Snow was described in the books as a thin and unassumingly small man – which aren’t quite the words that come to mind when you consider the 6’4” Sutherland. Still, the actor has certainly earned his epic-enigmatic bona fides – remember his Mister X in JFK? – and it should be interesting to see him play off Jennifer Lawrence’s spunk Katniss Everdeen. The Hunger Games is currently in production, and is currently slated for a March 23, 2012 release in theaters.